


Wrapping Presents

by Hisa_Ai



Series: 31 Days of Christmas [27]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: 31 Days of fic, AU, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Christmas, Christmas Prompt, Day 27, Fluff, M/M, Modern Day, Presents, Prompt Fic, Wrapping, Wrapping Presents, Yule, christmas gifts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-27
Updated: 2013-12-27
Packaged: 2018-01-06 23:59:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,130
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1113064
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hisa_Ai/pseuds/Hisa_Ai
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Merlin sucks at wrapping things; Arthur does not.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wrapping Presents

* * *

 

 

"God damnit!" Merlin cursed, threw the tape dispenser across the table he was sitting at and crossed his arms in a huff.

On the table just in front of him was a mess of a present, ripped wrapping paper with stupid snowflakes and smiling snowmen on it, tape holding bits of it down on the gift he was wrapping for his mother. There was a pile of gifts still waiting to be wrapped near him, a few more rolls of wrapping paper, name tags and ribbons to be put on, more tape to be used.

Not that any of it was going to do  _him_  any good if he couldn't even get the damn paper on there correctly.

Merlin was good at  _buying_  the presents, at thinking carefully and picking out just the right thing for just the right person, what he was  _not_  good at was wrapping the damn things so they seemed presentable enough to actually give to them.

When he'd lived at home, his mother had always done it, and once he moved out and was on his own he had always had a friend—Gwen, Will, Freya, Lance, hell, even  _Gwaine_  was better at wrapping than he was—who would offer to do it for him.

Usually, though, in recent years, he would wait for Arthur to get home so he could do it for him or call Gwen over to help him, but he was in his late twenties, damnit, and he was determined to finally wrap his gifts himself.

However, the wrapping paper that wouldn't fold correctly, the tape that was sticking everywhere  _but_  the place it needed to, his long fingers rebelling against what he wanted them to do, all seemed to disagree with his plan. Because he had been trying for  _at least_  a half-hour to wrap the damn thing correctly and the pile of ripped and thrashed wrapping paper on the floor told him that he was never quite going to master this particular art.

So when Arthur walked in the door ten minutes later and found Merlin with his arms crossed, staring daggers at the mess on the table in front of him, he didn't question it. He clicked his tongue, shrugged out of his coat and gloves, took a seat across from him, then slid the half-wrapped monstrosity over to himself and got to work on it.

Merlin watched him, his eyes still narrowed in a fit of anger and frustration, as he threw the bad paper to the floor with the rest and then cut off a square of fresh paper, went about in silence folding the paper carefully, his fingers graceful in a way that none attributed to Arthur Pendragon, of all people, as he ripped off pieces of tape, folded the corners more, and then, not a moment later, slid the perfectly wrapped package back over to Merlin, the whole thing looking so wonderful and perfect that Merlin wanted to throw it at his head.

"You do the nametags and bows, all right? Think you can manage that?" Arthur teased, pushing the ribbons and nametags, a pen, over to Merlin. He made a mocking sort of face but filled out the nametag and stuck it on the package anyway. Bows, he could manage, so he went to work himself while Arthur continued wrapping the things from Merlin's pile, his hands working quicker than Merlin thought was humanly possible.

The silence was comforting, allowed Merlin a few moments to calm down and focus on tying the bows  _just so_  instead of on that fact that Arthur was so much better at this than he was.

Arthur slid the final, perfectly wrapped package over to him and stood up, walked off to the kitchen as Merlin finished with the bows, yelling back to him that he was going to put some tea on to boil and that if Merlin wanted any he should come to the kitchen when he was finished, he had just wrapped those damn gifts and he would not risk Merlin and his clumsiness spilling tea all over them.

With the last nametag in place, the last bow tied perfectly, Merlin pushed back from the table, made his way into the kitchen just in time for Arthur to pour him a nice, steaming cup.

After his first sip, he pursed his lips, asked, "Why are you so good at that?"

"What, making tea?" Arthur asked in return, taking a sip before setting it down on the counter.

"No," Merlin rolled his eyes. "Wrapping…  _things._  Doesn't really seem like something a Pendragon should know how to do."

"And what  _should_  a Pendragon know how to do?" Arthur wriggled his eyebrows suggestively.

"Seriously, Arthur,"

"I don't know,  _Mer_ lin," he shrugged. "Obviously my father is terrible at wrapping things, so Morgana was always in charge of all that growing up. But, once I started buying gifts myself, I didn't quite want her to know what I'd gotten her, and if I  _dared_  to place anything short of perfection under that tree, she would unwrap it the second she saw it and redo it  _her way._  So I had to learn how to do it without flaw or ruin the surprise for her. Looking back now, I don't know why I didn't just let her do it to begin with—sneaky bitch admitted to going through my things and finding her gifts anyway before I wrapped them—but… it was important to me that I know how to do it. Good thing, too, eh?" he nudged Merlin with a smile, frowned at the look of thought on his face.

"Look," Arthur sighed again, his cup on the counter once more as he wrapped his arms around Merlin from behind, rocking him slightly as he pressed a kiss to his temple. "If it's  _that_  important to you, I can always just  _teach_  you how to do it right." He offered.

And Merlin was  _sure_  he didn't expect him to take him up on that offer, but they spent the rest of the evening at the dining room table anyway, Arthur trying to explain to him why he couldn't just cut the ends off and why they had to be folded  _just so_  or else the whole thing would just fall apart.

Merlin was also sure that Arthur's frustration at having to wrap and  _re_ wrap miscellaneous items from around the house was almost as bad as his own had been that afternoon.

So when Merlin decided that they were done wrapping gifts for the evening and that Arthur needed to learn how to  _properly_  tie a bow, and then proceeded to leave one in  _quite_  the strategic sort of place as motivation—well…

He was sure all was forgiven.

 

* * *

 


End file.
